Regions and Revolving Loan Funds

Sage Community Resources/Reuse Idaho Brownfields Coalition

Sage Community Resources, with the five other councils of government (COGs) in Idaho and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ), formed the Reuse Idaho Brownfields Coalition. The coalition secured a $3 million EPA brownfields revolving loan fund (RLF) grant in May 2005.

According to the Economic Development Administration, 74 percent of Idaho’s regions meet the federal “area distress” criteria based on per capita income and unemployment rates. Much of Idaho’s rural unemployment is related to a downturn in natural resource sectors. The state’s rural communities are struggling to reuse former lumber mill sites. In the past decade, the Boise Cascade Corporation closed its lumber mills, stripping numerous cities of their primary employer and leaving abandoned sites. Numerous mining operations have closed, leaving communities with damaged properties. IDEQ and EPA assessed over 30 brownfields in 2004, and IDEQ is currently developing a statewide inventory of up to 300 sites.

Sage will administer and manage the EPA RLF. The RLF is a consortium effort that benefits the entire state. Kathleen Simko, Sage Community Resources President, reports the state has been a great partner, providing valuable technical assistance. “Once their implementation plan is received and accepted, the consortium will begin to make loans. Communities already are lined up to apply,” states Simko.

Sage worked with IDEQ to overcome the barriers that other brownfields RLFs have faced. The coalition’s loans will be tied to IDEQ’s voluntary cleanup program to ensure loans are made to projects that are moving forward, and loans will be paid more quickly in this program. A nointerest loan will be offered as an incentive for quicker loan repayment. IDEQ is taking the lead on the inventory process and will be training and using a group of community volunteers to help identify potential sites to learn which sites have been (or are being) assessed and which have reuse plans, resulting in a list of loan-ready communities. While half the RLF funding is intended for petroleum and half for hazardous materials, once the money is repaid, it can be used to allow additional flexibility.

Sage is exploring funding options to cover administrative costs and to determine programmatic overlaps. Simko says one alternative could be to charge fees for loans to help cover administrative costs. However, they do not want to make the cost of being a part of their RLF prohibitive. Sage also provides grant administration and management help to Washington County, an EPA brownfields assessment grantee within the Sage service area, which has helped the county offset administrative costs. Sage provides this type of assistance at a discount to its member communities. This arrangement gives Sage perspective on the projects to which they will be making loans.]

Most of Sage’s projects are rural in nature and are often part of downtown planning. Due to Idaho’s economic dependence on natural resources, many sites are minescarred or timber lands. A complication is that much of this land may be under the auspices of the Bureau of Land Management or Park Service.